We test for the long-term effects of experience during youth on consumption in nontraditional taste-forming categories. A unique dataset that tracks individuals over twenty years from 1992-2011, residing in nine Chinese provinces that vary widely in both income levels and rate of economic growth, helps us identify cohort and intra-cohort “prosperity-inyouth” (PIY) effects on consumption. We fir...

Public economic planning is a pervasive part of the social space of political economy. In times of crisis, public officials in American government agencies at the local and national level increasingly use the vocabulary of economic planning. My PhD dissertation is a collection of papers representing a pointed critique of urban economic planning by public officials in times of crisis and prosper...

Taiwan is a modern industrialized megalopolis clinging to the fringes of the ancient Chinese culture. This tiny island has evolved from agricultural backwater status to global technological giant over the last few decades. Despite the economic prosperity and democratic reforms, social problems involving suicide additionally emerged, and suicide became one of the top ten major causes of death si...

There is a positive relationship between the health of a nation and its economic prosperity. However, in evaluating health care, economists typically concentrate on the economic impact only to the health (care) sector, which may mis-specify the social costs and benefits of a disease or intervention. This paper demonstrates the value of using a macroeconomic approach to modelling a major health ...

Transitional rural China faces more serious challenges in its sustainable development. How to regain the vital momentum of those historically and culturally preeminent villages, among over 680,000 administrative villages in total, has become the pressing agenda for all the stakeholders, due to the fact that these villages have huge potential to be the leverage for successful rural transition an...

Implementations of advanced information systems in developing countries are often perceived as a way to economical prosperity and modernity. However, even in the best of scenarios implementing major information systems is far from a risk-free activity. The reality of developing countries adds extra complexity to an already demanding endeavor. This study explores socio-technical aspects of an un...